Source:
Tom Telescope, The Newtonian System of Philosophy Adapted to the Capacities of young Gentlemen and Ladies, and familiarized and made entertaining by Objects with which they are intimately acquainted (London: 1761).

Extraordinary denunciation of the fourth-century Saint Athanasius, reputedly the 'Father of Orthodoxy' but in Newton's eyes the founder of a depraved, trinitarian form of Christianity. Apart from founding perverse groups such as those of monks, 'feigning' miracles and promoting the worship of relics, Athanasius allegedly endorsed or even committed the murder of his enemies. Long after the event, according to Newton, he also forged letters and accounts of major councils that formed the basis for future Church doctrine.

[2]

SL266 is described in the Sotheby catalogue as c. 30,000 words on 120 pp. (i.e. 120 written sides?). The catalogue does, however, tend to underestimate the number of words Newton could get onto a page. Babson Ms. 436 may have been a part of this lot.

[3]

The first half of this (up to f. 37) is an earlier draft of King's College Cambridge, Keynes Ms. 10.

[4]

f. 1r 'Quæst 1. Whether ye ignominious death of Arius in a bog-house was not a story put about by Athanasius above twenty years after his death?'

f. 11r 'Quest. 3 Whether the Council of Tyre & Ierusalem was not an bigger\orthodox authentic/ Council \bigger/ than that of Nice'

f. 15r 'Quest. 4 Whether Athanasius in ye Council of Tyre produced Arsenius alive or only his letter of Arsenius to prove yt he was not dead. Whether it was Arsenius alive or only his letter wch Athanasius produced in ye Council of Tyre to prove that he was not dead.'

f. 15r'Quest. 5. Whether ye story of the dead man's hand & the living Arsenius was not feigned by Athanasius about 25 years after ye time of ye Council of Tyre.'

f. 17r 'Quest. 6 Whether the Letter of Pinnes was not for for proving Arsenius to be alive was not feigned by Athanasius being at ye same time wth ye story of the dead mans hand.'

f. 19r 'Quest. 7 Whether the story\Letter/ of Arsenius was not feigned by Athanasius before the convening of ye Council of Tyre?'

f. 21r 'Quest 8 Whether the Letter of Ischyras was not feigned by Athanasius'

f. 23r 'Quest 9 Whether the Recantation of Valens & Vrsatius was not feigned by the friends of Athanasius.'

f. 24v 'Whether Vrsatius & Valens made any other confession besides that in ye Council of Millain.'

f. 25r 'Quest. 10 Whether Athanasius was accused of adultery before the Council of Tyre.'

f. 26r 'QuestWhether Athanasius did not\misrepresent/impose upon ye western Bishops'

'Quæst. 11 Whether Athanasius hath\did/not misrepresent the story of the communion cup of Ischyras\accusation of his breaking charged upon him/\by/subverting the communion Table and demolishing the Church. Whether Athanasius did \fairly sincerely/ acquit himself of ye crime of breaking ye communion cup \& whether he did not feign the letter/ of Ischyras.'

f. 28r 'Quest. 12 Whether Athanasius was not made Bishop of Alexandria by sedition & violence against the canons of that Church.'

f. 29r 'Quest. 13 Whether Athanasius was not justly deposed by ye Council of Tyre.'

f. 32r 'Quest. 14 Whether Athanasius was not seditious.'

f. 34r 'Quest. 15 Whether Constantius persecuted the Athanasians for religion or only punished them for immorality.'

f. 49r 'Quest Whether \the Emperor/ Valens persecuted the Athanasians for religion or only punished them for their faults\immoralities./'

f. 54r 'Quest. Whether Athanasius did not set on foot the invocation of saints'

f. 61r 'Whether Athanasius did not for promoting his interest set on foot the practise of false miracles.'

f. 72r 'Quest. Whether the Roman Catholicks were not wicked enough to deserve what they suffered under Constantius, Valens & the Vandals.'

f. 79r 'Quest. Whether the Vandals persecuted the Africans for their faith or only punished them for their immoralities.'

f. 80r 'Whether Athanasius did not for promoting his interest set on foot the way of writing lying\fabulous/ Legends, & propagate the superstition of Monkery.'

f. 82r 'Whether Athanasius for stifling objections taken from ye writings of Dionysius of Alexandria & from ye Council of Antioch collected against Paul of Samosat & for changing the ancient Doxology did not feign records.'

(2) [Late December 1695.] Signed holograph draft: 'An Accompt of all the gold and silver monies coyned by the Mill & Press', covering the period March 1693-December 1695. 1 p.

(3) [1696?] Holograph draft specifications for verifying legal tender and recoining counterfeit money, presumably related to the recoinage of 1696-8 and probably to the earlier part of it when such issues were most debated. c. 300 words, 1 p.

(4) [May 1701.] Newton [to Treasury?]. Holograph draft: 'The course of Exchange between London and Paris taken weekly'. Covering letter for a table of these statistics for the period 24 Sept. 1700 to 9 May 1701 (the table is not present), and the fragmentary beginnings of a table showing the same information for rates between London and Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid. c. 200 words, 2 pp.

(5) [1700?] Holograph critique of 'Mr Polixfins [i.e. John Pollexfen's] discourse about Paper-credit', untitled. c. 2,000 words, 7 pp. Another copy at MINT00261 (II.608-11), q.v. for a more detailed account of the contents.

The Sotheby catalogue describes this lot as consisting of seven items, treating sections 5-7 as one item. The divisions used here are those stipulated by Newton himself on the title sheet. The title sheet also promises a tenth section, 'A Collection of ancient Hieroglyphicks', but if this was ever present it had vanished by the date of the Sotheby sale.

4 'Axioms', in English with Latin citations, c. 800 words, 4 pp. Forty-three numbered instructions for an alchemical operation, followed by four further unnumbered notes, citing a wide range of sources with blank spaces left for precise volume and page references to be filled in.

5 Draft headings for an alchemical index (from 'Aqua compos' to 'Venus'), 4 pp., described on the title page as 'An alphabeticall explanation of chemicall words': there are no entries except that most of the headings are followed by one or more [page?] numbers.

9 'De medendi Arte, & usu Lapidis', in English and Latin, c. 2,000 words, 6 pp. Notes from a wide range of sources including the Book of Maccabees. Followed by two brief notes in Latin headed 'De projectione' and 'De morbis sanandis', 1 p.

[34] 48 pp. in a wrapper headed 'Alychimya' [sic] in another hand and bearing a list of contents in Newton's.

[40]
Lecture I [The Newtonian System ... familiarized (1761)]
The Newtonian System ... familiarized (1761)
Front Matter to the Newtonian System of Philosophy Adapted to the Capacities of young Gentlemen and Ladies [The Newtonian System ... familiarized (1761)]

[41]

Entitled 'Certain Argumts collected out of ye scriptures[,] out of ye civill Law & ye Com[m]on exhibited to ye Queens Matie by some of both houses against ye Queen of Scots', and dated 'Anno 13tio Elizabethæ [i.e. 1571]'.

[42] 11 pp.

[43]

in English and Latin

[44]

Published as 'Remarks on the Observations made on a Chronological Index of Sir Isaac Newton, translated into French by the Observer, and published at Paris' in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 33 (1725), p. 315). Cf. King's College Cambridge, Keynes Ms. 138 and Yahuda Var. 1 Ms. 27, and the notes there.

[45]

Entitled 'Remarques upon the Observations made upon a Chronological Index of Sr Is. Newton, translated into French by the Observator, & published at Paris'. A later hand has added 'Sr Isaac Newton's' to the beginning of the title. On the back of p. 3 in another hand: 'Sr Isaac Newton/ Copy'd/ read about ye latter end of 1725'.

Newton's account of Guillaume Cavelier's publication of the Abregé de la Chronologie de M. le Chevalier Newton, stressing that it had no sanction from Newton, followed by a refutation of several of the 'Observations' appended to the French edition.